2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program, created by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Jon led a very special 1-hour, 40 minute edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on October 24, 2019. Click on the image to watch it!

Saki F. Santorelli, EdD, MA is an educator, meditation guide, writer, gardener, and pioneer in integrating meditation and mindfulness into medicine, health care, and the broader society. In 2017, he retired as professor of medicine, executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society and director of the internationally acclaimed Stress Reduction Clinic – the clinic of origin of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) - at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

His entire forty-year career in medicine and healthcare has been oriented around the integration of mindfulness into public health fueled by an abiding trust in the innate brilliance and nobility of human beings. He has plumbed the nature of the healing relationship by working with thousands of medical patients, educating and mentoring generations of medical students, healthcare professionals, educators, and researchers of mindfulness and MBSR. Through his vision and leadership, the Center for Mindfulness transmitted the ethos, practice, teaching, and science of mindfulness to individuals and organizations around the world.

Saki has been a student in the universal Sufi lineage of Hazrat Inayat Khan for nearly fifty years. In 1980, his teacher, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, suggested he also become a student in the Buddhist insight meditation tradition. He did so. A year later, he met Jon Kabat-Zinn. Blessed with such good fortune, he entered an apprenticeship with Jon. As their decades-long relationship unfolded, they became colleagues, friends, and dharma-brothers transmitting the taste of mindfulness, the fragrance of the heart, and the vision of a grounded, lively contemplative science and education to people around the planet.

Saki teaches, writes, presents workshops, seminars, and leads retreats internationally. He is the author of Heal Thy Self: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine now translated into thirteen languages and founder/director of the website and online community, Guest House Awareness.

Saki led a 1-hour session on March 10, 2022 entitled "In the Guesthouse." Click on the image to watch it!

Buddhist teacher, New York Times bestselling author and founder of the Open Heart Project Susan Piver led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on November 21, 2019. Click on the image to watch it!

David Gordon is the author of Mindful Dreaming, and is a clinical psychologist and founder of The Dreamwork Institute; David led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on December 12, 2019. Click on the image to watch it!

Nancy Waring is the is the founding director of the Mindfulness Studies master’s degree program at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, the only program of its kind in North America. She was also Margaret's advising professor when she completed her master’s degree through Lesley, and is ever her mentor and good friend in teaching. Nancy led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on February 27, 2020. Click on the image to watch it!

Diane Reibel is the Director of the Myrna Brind Center for Mindfulness at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at Jefferson, and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative Medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University. She is a certified MBSR teacher through the Center for Mindfulness at University of Massachusetts Medical Center and has been teaching MBSR for over 20 years to patients, healthcare professionals, medical and college students, and school teachers/administrators.

In addition to her passion for teaching mindfulness she studies the physiologic effects and health outcomes of mindfulness training and her research is published and widely cited in both scientific journals and the popular press. Dr. Reibel is coauthor of the book Teaching Mindfulness: A Practical Guide for Clinicians and Educators and co-editor of Resources for Teaching Mindfulness: An International Handbook. Diane led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on March 19, 2020. Click on the image to watch it!

Norman Scrimshaw is the co-founder of Awakening to the Heart, along with his wife and life partner, Cynthia Scrimshaw. Norman's search for wisdom spans more than 30 years, encompassing philosophy, psychology, reading, personal growth seminars, living in an Ashram, trips to India, and commitment on spiritual paths with Indian gurus. In the summer of 1999, he had the good fortune to meet his teacher Adyashanti. This was a powerful time of meditation and inquiry for Norman. As he puts it, "In the process of life itself, I saw thoughts losing their power to dictate identification with fear, emotional pain, and anger. I awakened to the living experience that the truth and essence of my being was found not in any thoughts, but in the awakened presence of my heart." Norman led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on April 16, 2020. Click on the image to watch it!

Norman Scrimshaw returned to lead another special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on August 5, 2021. During the session, he spoke of the potential of practice as a means to release unhelpful patterns and experience life through our wise hearts. In this way, we can recognize how consciousness can look right into itself. Through his guidance, he invited everyone to dip into the ocean of consciousness and discover who we truly are. Click on the image to watch it!

Bob Stahl has founded eight Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs in medical centers in the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently offering programs at Dominican Hospital, El Camino Hospitals in Los Gatos and Mt. View, and Good Samaritan Hospital. He also serves as a Senior Teacher for Brown University Mindfulness Center.

Bob teaches MBSR Teacher Trainings and Insight Meditation retreats worldwide and is the guiding teacher at Insight Santa Cruz and a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society. He is coauthor of 5 books: A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook (1st & 2nd editions), Living With Your Heart Wide Open, Calming the Rush of Panic, A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook for Anxiety, and MBSR Everyday. Bob led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on May 14, 2020. Click on the image to watch it!

Anne Twohig is from Dublin, Ireland and now lives in the beautiful seaside town of Greystones, south of Dublin where she enjoys long walks by the sea and hiking in the hills of County Wicklow. She is a certified MBSR teacher and teacher trainer and the founder of the Centre for Mindfulness Ireland, which she established in 2007. Anne trained with the Center for Mindfulness (CFM), University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMass), and was a member of their professional teaching faculty from 2014 to 2018. Anne is now an adjunct faculty member with UCSD.

Anne says about Mindfulness in these times of Covid-19 – ‘Of course I do not know how it would be for me making my way through these very challenging times without my practice of mindfulness, however, I feel sure that it would be much more difficult than it is. It feels like mindfulness was fashioned for these times. I remember hearing one of my earlier teachers say how the practice of mindfulness is like credit in the bank for when you need it and I now understand these words with much greater depth. I have also heard it said that in times of trouble, the practice will find you. I know this to be true. It is the many wonderful qualities gently held within this practice that makes it an essential and reliable lifelong companion.’

Anne led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on August 27, 2020, with a talk entitled "Sensing the Moment." Click on the image to watch it!

Pam Erdmann claims herself as the oldest (eighty-three!) living MBSR teacher on the planet! She trained in the late 80s with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli at U. Mass Medical School, teaching in the hospital and in the Massachsetts Prison System and the New Hampshire Prison system. Pam taught and trained teachers at the University of Bangor, Wales for twenty years as well as supervising folks in Ireland, Scotland, China, Finland, Portugal and Greece.

What Pam has to say right now: 'I have found Mindfulness invaluable in dealing both with old age and a world burning up. Coming back to the breath and body when things seem to spring toward a dark, dark place is invaluable. Sometimes, it seems, practice is the only place to grasp sanity and calm. What a gift we have to invite others to learn these skills.'

Pam led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on September 17, 2020, with a talk entitled "A Reflection in the Time of Covid-19." Click on the image to watch it!

Rick Pacelli received his Doctor of Ministry degree from the Graduate Theological Seminary in Indiana. He specialized in meditation education in his course of studies. As part of that, he completed an intensive workshop on Centering Prayer Facilitation in Duluth, Minnesota.

He first learned to practice while a full time volunteer at Covenant House in NYC in 1984 by attending a workshop led by Thomas Keating. About his experience with Centering Prayer, Rick says, "I have taught church groups as well as many students at St. Paul’s School over the last 20 years. I have done intensive silent retreats at St. Benedict’s retreat house in Snowmass Colorado. During the first one, I was able to have a private meeting with Fr. Thomas for about an hour. A meeting I will never forget."

Rick led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on January 7, 2021, with a talk focused on Centering Prayer. Click on the image to watch it!

Judy Ringer holds a third-degree black belt in the martial art Aikido. She provides conflict and communication training internationally with workshops based on mind/body principles from Aikido. Employing best practice communication models, Judy brings to life key concepts such as self-management under pressure and appreciation of other viewpoints. Her programs are interactive, experiential and energetic. Judy has an extensive list of clients within the health, governmental, educational and business communities. She is the author of Turn Enemies Into Allies: The Art of Peace in the Workplace and Unlikely Teachers: Finding the Hidden Gifts in Daily Conflict.

Judy led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on March 18, 2021. Click on the image to watch it!

Mark Nepo is a poet and spiritual adviser who has taught in the fields of poetry and spirituality for over 40 years. With over a million copies sold, Mark has moved and inspired readers and seekers all over the world with his #1 New York Times bestseller The Book of Awakening. A beloved poet, teacher, and storyteller, Mark has been called “one of the finest spiritual guides of our time,” “a consummate storyteller,” and “an eloquent spiritual teacher.”

His work is widely accessible and used by many and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages. A bestselling author, Mark has published twenty-two books and recorded fifteen audio projects. Recent work includes The Book of Soul (St. Martin’s Essentials, 2020), Drinking from the River of Light (Sounds True, 2019); More Together Than Alone (Atria, 2018) cited by Spirituality & Practice as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2018; and Things That Join the Sea and the Sky (Sounds True, 2017), a Nautilus Book Award Winner.

In his 30s Mark was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma, a struggle which helped to form his philosophy of experiencing life fully while staying in relationship to an unknowable future. Mark devotes his writing and teaching to the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship. He continues to offer readings, lectures, and retreats.

Find out more about Mark at Live.MarkNepo.com.

Mark led a special 1-hour edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on April 1, 2021, with a talk on the theme "Inside Everything." Click on the image to watch it!

Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director/choreographer, filmmaker, and creator of new opera, music-theater works, films and installations. Recognized as one of the most unique and influential artists of our time, she is a pioneer of what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance.” In 1968, Ms. Monk founded The House, a company dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to performance. In 1978, she formed Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble to expand her innovative exploration of the voice as a multifaceted instrument. Celebrated internationally, her work has been presented at major venues throughout the world. Over the last six decades she has received numerous awards and honors including a MacArthur Fellowship, Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters from the Republic of France, induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and a National Medal of Arts. 
 
A longtime Buddhist practitioner, she is a student of Acharya Pema Chödrön. In addition to workshops and master classes at the Garrison Institute, Omega, Naropa University and Zen Mountain Monastery, she has co-taught workshops with Acharya Judy Lief and Lanny Harrison both in New York and at Naropa, where she first encountered the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in the mid-‘70s. In 1999 she performed a “Vocal Offering” for His Holiness the Dalai Lama as part of the World Sacred Music Festival in Los Angeles. Currently, she is developing Indra’s Net, the third part of a trilogy of music-theater works exploring our interdependent relationship with nature.

Meredith led a special 1-hour edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on May 20, 2021, with a talk on the theme "Voice as Practice." Click on the image to watch it!

Carol Bowman, Ed.D. is an Associate Professor of Education, E-RYT500, CRYT, MBSR Instructor, and is Program Coordinator of Mindfulness at Ramapo College with programs in MBSR and Yoga Teacher Certification.

She has studied yoga for most of her life and developed the Yoga Teacher Certification at Ramapo College in 2010. This contemplative path led her to spend time with the Thich Nhat Hanh community at Blue Cliff Monastery, connecting with his teachings and eventually training at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center as a teacher of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction.

Carol convenes the Contemplative Studies Minor and conducts research in yoga and mindfulness education, as well as teaching workshops for educators in yoga for the classroom and mindfulness education. Her greatest motivation is the transformation of education to embrace both mind and heart.

Carol led a floor yoga session on a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on June 17, 2021. Click on the image to watch it!

Andrew Holecek is an author and spiritual teacher who offers talks, online courses, and workshops in the United States and abroad. A long-time student of Buddhism, he has completed the traditional three-year Buddhist meditation retreat and offers seminars internationally on meditation, lucid dreaming, and the art of dying.

He is the author of many books, including The Power and the Pain; Preparing to Die; Meditation in the iGeneration, and three books on the nocturnal meditations. Dr. Holecek is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and has authored scientific papers. His work has appeared in Parabola, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Utne Reader, Buddhadharma Magazine, Light of Consciousness, and many other periodicals. See andrewholecek.com for more.

Andrew led a special 1-hour edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on November 4, 2021, with a talk entitled "Ok, I’m Mindful . . . Now What?" in which he explored some of the obstacles to meditation, including spiritual bypassing, escapism, and McMindfulness. Click on the image to watch it!

David Nugent is a multi-instrumentalist and a lover of many genres of music. He has built and restored a variety of instruments, including making period replicas to use in performance. He has performed with the Goodmorrow Consort (an Elizabethan theatre music ensemble), Odd Men Out (an irish pub group), and the Himalayan Heritage Performing Arts Group with his Nepali teachers Prem Khatiwada and Harimaya Adhikari.

Dave led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on February 10, 2022, during which he spoke to the meditative aspects of learning and mastering the didgeridoo and offered a sound meditation accompanied by his dear friend in life and music, Bill Fletcher.

In addition to his musical talents, Dave is an internationally sought after foundry pattern maker. To see examples of some of Dave’s pattern work, visit here.

We are grateful for the co-sponsorship of the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Concord NH for this event. Click on the image to watch it!

Janet Surrey teaches Insight Dialogue retreats internationally and leads a monthly practice group in the Boston area. Jan serves on the Insight Dialogue Community Teachers’ Council and the coordinating team for the Insight Dialogue Teaching Community. She has worked with Gregory Kramer since 2007. Her original teacher was Vimala Thakar. Jan has also done many retreats with Thich Nhat Hanh and Joanna Macy and completed the Community Dharma Leader training at Spirit Rock in 2008. Jan is a practicing clinical psychologist and is a faculty and board member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy in Boston, MA. She and other facilitators hold a monthly practice group called Insight Dialogue Northeast. Find out more about Jan here.

Janet led a special edition of the Worldwide Online Sit on April 14, 2022, during which she introduced the guidelines of Insight Dialogue—Pause, Relax, Open, Attune to Emergence, Listen Deeply and Speak the Truth—followed by a brief demonstration of the practice. Click on the image to watch it!